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In honor of Thursday night's nationally televised Jags-Bucs contest, Scramble takes on the two South divisions. Can Atlanta's late-season surge to greatness continue in 2017?Are the bandwagons in Tennessee and Tampa Bay ready for prime time? And does Houston actually need a quarterback at all?

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The Week In Quotes: October 28, 2011

compiled by Rivers McCown

IF THE ALTERNATIVE IS YOU, I LIKE HER CHANCES IN THE POWER-I

"I do stink. We all stink. When it comes to 0-6, everybody stinks. We've all, in some way, shape or form have not been good enough, and that's what I meant with those comments. I don't care if it's the front-desk secretary -- she ain't doing a good enough job. Everybody's in this thing together." -- Dolphins running back Reggie Bush, on his team's awful start (Palm Beach Post)

TRY BUILDING YOUR NEXT STADIUM INSIDE THE TOP KITCHEN CABINET

"If we never saw him again, that would be too soon." -- Colts president Bill Polian, on Saints running back and noted Colts tormentor Darren Sproles (Los Angeles Times)

CARFOX, SPACE COYOTE, SAME THING

"Every soul comes with a CarFax." -- Texans running back Arian Foster, on how he knows about his past lives (Twitter)

WELL OBVIOUSLY HE'S GOT NOTHING ON NOTED SUPERSTAR GREG MCELROY

"If it happens, Luck’s draft stock will fall. If he plays an SEC team, his stock will fall. I ain’t got nothing against him. He’s a Pac-12 guy. I’m not a Pac 12 fan at all, I’m an SEC guy. But if he ever plays against an SEC school, Alabama, LSU, that draft stock is going to fall. That will be one game they just don’t show the scouts." -- 49ers defensive tackle Ricky Jean-Francois, on a potential Stanford-LSU national championship game (The Press Democrat)

SOUNDS MORE FUN THAN WATCHING LAST MONDAY NIGHT'S TAPE

"All I know is my dad, when we used to get a little out of control, he used to grab us both by the back of the head and knock our foreheads together. It would be a ‘head clunk,’ we would call it. He’d clunk our heads together. That’ll get your attention pretty quickly, so I hope he doesn’t have to clunk our heads together after the game. He wouldn’t take a side. He’d be doing the head clunking I think." -- Ravens coach John Harbaugh, on the potential for a handshake brouhaha against brother Jim when Baltimore faces the 49ers on Thanksgiving (Sports Radio Interviews)

CITIZENS OF TORONTO, BE FOREWARNED

"This is no knock on the citizens of Toronto. We know a large percentage of our fan base comes from Canada, and we're appreciative of their support. But at the same time, the environment is just not the same. That's just facts." -- Bills safety George Wilson, on Buffalo's latest "home game" in Toronto (AP)

IT'S A BRAND NEW ERA, IT FEELS GREAT, IT'S A BRAND NEW ERA, BUT IT CAME TOO LATE

"I don't think that this is the end. In fact, I look at it as a beginning." -- UCLA head coach Rick Neuheisel, on UCLA's dismal loss to Arizona last week (Twitter)

DEAR MR. GOODELL: THERE ARE TOO MANY WEEKS, PLEASE ELIMINATE TWO. P.S. I AM NOT A CRACKPOT

"In my 12th year, any time the bye week comes is the right time." -- Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (Sports Radio Interviews)

I WAS CONFUSED BECAUSE THE SCOREBOARD SAID SOMETHING DIFFERENT

"I like to keep my personal goals to myself. As far as the team, I like our chances. I feel like, it may sound crazy, I think we are unbeatable. I think the losses, we lost those games ourselves." -- Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant, on his goals (The Dallas Morning News)

"Maybe if I thought about it, (but) I don’t know if I could list them off to you right now," -- Houston quarterback Case Keenum, asked if he could recall all nine touchdown passes he threw in breaking the NCAA career touchdowns record (AP)

APPARENTLY HE DIDN'T HAVE TIME TO STUDY THE PUBLIC RELATIONS PLAYBOOK EITHER

"I think if you talk to Carson, and really I didn’t hear it that way because I didn’t look at it, but when I said to Carson ‘hey look do you want to go into this game and get some reps?’ He said ‘yes.’ That’s what the conversation was. If Carson Palmer would’ve said no then Carson Palmer never would’ve been in the game." -- Raiders coach Hue Jackson, on Carson Palmer's debut (Sports Radio Interviews)

"I was told I was not going to play. I didn't know the offense, I also hadn't been training and working out. So it was a complete shock to me at halftime when [Coach Jackson] told me, 'Hey, you know we're going to get you in, in the third quarter.' I knew like about 15 plays and we ran the same 15 plays over and over again" -- Palmer's side of the story (Shutdown Corner)

CLEARLY THE PROBLEM IS THAT THEY AREN'T DISTRACTED ENOUGH IN THE RED ZONE

"We think that's going to be something that adds to the atmosphere, too." -- Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly, on possibly adding a jumbotron to Notre Dame Stadium (AP)

THIS IS THE WORST KIND OF DISCRIMINATION: THE KIND AGAINST ME

"If you are watching the game and you can’t tell what's going on with the run game, then I'd say you really don’t know football." -- Titans running back Chris Johnson, following another dismal effort by the Tennessee running game (Twitter)

YES, I DON'T KNOW WHY ANYONE WOULD PULL FOR THEIR TEAM TO ACQUIRE ANDREW LUCK WHEN THEY COULD BE ROOTING FOR MATT MOORE TO STICK A FIVE-YARD OUT TO YOU

"It's sick, actually. I can't even fathom those thoughts of those people that conjure up that stuff. They have never played sports and pretty much aren't really our loyal fans. I can't really put any weight into that and I know the players don't listen to it. It's a shame, but people are going to talk and we just have to block that out." -- Dolphins tight end Anthony Fasano, on the "Suck For Luck" campaign (Shutdown Corner)

EMBRACING THE WHAM CONCEPT VERBALLY

"He'll have fun watching the film today, we'll just say that. He didn't really do a whole lot yesterday. He'll have fun." -- Jets safety Jim Leonhard, on the squawking of Chargers tight end Randy McMichael (Newark Star-Ledger)

I DON'T KNOW YOU! LET GO OF MY PURSE!

"From what I hear, it didn’t show on the TV copy. But if you watch the game, you can clearly see he kind of picked me up in mid-air, put me on the back, and then presumed to come toward me. So automatically I went into defense mode." -- Vikings defensive end Brian Robison, on why he kicked Packers lineman T.J. Lang in the crotch (Green Bay Press-Gazette)

BERNARD! DON'T BE A TUNAHEAD!

"You can't say, 'Go get in a car crash, but be careful.' You can't do that." -- Ravens safety Bernard Pollard, on a dubious personal foul penalty against him during Monday Night Football (MASN)

If you see a quote that you think should be in the next TWIQ, send it via email to quotes-at-footballoutsiders.com or via Twitter to @FO_RiversMcCown

No love for the Fox pregame show? After Tony Gonzoles' kid "interviewed" his dad, the panel came back and one of them said "It's amazing to see an interview by someone whose feet don't touch the floor when he sits down ... and, here's Jay Glazer!!". Well, I laughed anyway.

Sorry Anthony. I've been a Dolphins fan my entire life. For the past 15 years I've been doomed to wallow in mediocrity in "good" years and horrible displays of football in bad years. I watch the Dolphins religiously and even I and my Dolphin fan friends agree they are always agonizingly boring to watch. The Dolphins have tried every which way to find a QB for 15 years and the best thing we've had is your choice of one season of Chad Pennington or Jay freaking Fiedler. And now, more than ever, you absolutely cannot win without an elite QB.

This season I was actually excited before the first game. The team has talent. The O-line is, I believe, the most expensive O-line in the league and is supposed to be great. Brandon Marshall is supposed to be an elite receiver. The young defense was supposed to take a huge leap forward this year from a good year last year. I bought into the hype. The first couple games broke me.

Now I cheer for the first pick and Andrew Luck. If not the first pick, then the new Dolphins coach/front office better trade as many draft picks as they need to get him. I'm sick and tired of dealing with this for 15 years.

I get that everyone on that team is a competitor (I played sports through high school so I get why he doesn't appreciate this movement), and like Herm says, you play to win the game. But the fans are sick of this. Even the real, true, life-long fans. There is no getting better until they get a franchise QB. Now we see all these reports of the best QB prospect in a ridiculously long time. This is a carrot dangling before us. A promise of a new future that hasn't been there since Daniel Constantine Marino III. Sorry Anthony, I want you and the rest of the team to keep trying, not lay down. But I want Andrew Luck and a reason to cheer again more than that.

Apologies if any Cleveland fans get angry at this. Just because you're worse off doesn't mean I can't be sick of my team's situation!

Come on, surely you must have noticed that a Top Notch QB isn't the only way to compete? For instance, maybe you should look at the teams in your own division. The Jets have been one of the most competitive teams in the AFC for several years running without an elite QB and the Pats haven't won a playoff games in 3 years despite having the best in the business. Heck, the Pats haven't even won a Superbowl since Brady decisively made the jump to elite level. I guess we should leave Buffalo out of it for the moment - they could be an early season fluke or they could be a franchise saved by unheralded QB who played with absolutely no distinction for several years and came out of college with no pedigree.

Anyhoo, I'm just saying you should be rooting for your team to build up overall - teams need to be TEAMS in order to compete year-in, year-out. A great QB won't solve all Miami's problems and you have to root for their defense to build on last year, you have to root for the young players to develop, you have to root for everyone to play to their potential at all times or you're just living in a fantasy world where some rookie QB will be the next Peyton Manning. (Trading "as many draft picks as they need" will most likely make the situation worse, not better.)

Anderw Brandt recently wrote an article about the Moneyball of Football. His analysis, while with the Packers, shoiwed that teams that spent equally on offense and defnese were more consistent winners than the teams that biased their spending (and their stars) to one side or the other.

I understand where you're coming from, my frustration has just reached its limit. The Jets are the exception to the rule, you're right. I still have no idea how they manage to win games. And I hate them so much. I feel as though for any team to win a Super Bowl, elite QB or not, takes a whole lot of luck. But if you look at teams consistently making the playoffs, the common thread is very good QB play.

And the thing is, I honestly believe the team has talent. I've seen players, especially some young ones, play really well. They have potential. They definitely need a new coach because whatever Sparano is doing obviously isn't translating to the field. But above all they have been lacking at the most important position for years. And that makes it even more frustrating. It's like having all these delicious side dishes and pretty silverware and no turkey on Thanksgiving. And they've tried asking the neighbors for some of their scraps of leftover turkey, they've tried getting a cooked turkey from a local restaurant, they've tried all these things that everyone knows won't be the same as the real thing. They've tried it all, except to cook their own freaking turkey!

Edit: I don't count Chad Henne, everyone knew what his ceiling was.

I'm usually one of the most reserved opinions out there when it comes to college prospects, but for the first time in a long time I believe all the stuff coming out about Luck. Maybe I'm wrong, I very well could be, but the guy honestly seems truly special. And you're right that trading tons of picks is normally a death sentence. But there is NO substitute for an elite QB. It doesn't matter how many draft picks you get.

The problem is, of course, that Luck could be Ryan Leaf and trading picks would set them back another half of a decade. And as for elite QB's being the clearest road to consistent success, I'm not so sure. Baltimore makes the playoffs every year and I'm not sure Flacco is leagues ahead of Henne. As mentioned, Henne is probably as good as Sanchez. The Bears are contenders almost in spite of Cutler and competed at a high level with Grossman/assorted scrubs at the helm. The Eagles have competed for a decade despite starting folks like A.J. Feeley, late-period Jeff Garcia and Kevin Kolb for long stretches. The Packers weathered Rodgers going down last year and just barely scraped by into the playoffs because they are a good team and good teams can weather that sort of things.

And the flipside is, the Saints have been an up-and-down team missing the playoffs several times with Brees as their QB and now forever being tarred with the ignominy of having lost to a 7-9 team in the first round of the playoffs. Sure, no one would turn down a Rodgers, Brady or a Manning, but only one of those guys was the top pick in their draft and even he wasn't the consensus #1.

I udnerstand the Dolphin fans' frustrations (probably made more painful by Buffalo's surprising uptick), but cheering for a bad season is simply wrong-headed. The team won't get where you want them to be on the strength of a single draft pick. And if your front office is in the habit of bringing in folks like Reggie Bush, there's zero reason to assume they'll even get the pick correct and not balk at the last second to do something crazy... They'll have a new front office and coaching staff after this season: you should be hoping that the good players, the up-and-comers, those with talent and drive make their presence as felt as possible so they don't get thrown out with the rest of the trash...

(I suppose I should admit I am being a bit of a hypocrite: when the Eagles went 1-4 to start the season, I immediately flipped back into our traditional "I don't care if we go 3-13, so long as our two wins come against the team with the big blue star in their helmet" mode.)

The thing to remember is that even elite quarterbacks (aside from Peyton Manning and maybe Newton, but we'll have to see) aren't really elite until well into their career. Brees, Brady, Rodgers, Rivers were not great starters their first 3 years. Rodgers gets an asterisk because he was stuck behind Favre, so we don't know how good he would've been but from what I've heard he completely revamped his mechanics so it's unlikely he would've been a stud from day 1. Roethlisberger was very efficient but wasn't given much to do his first few years. Eli Manning, who is pretty darn good now even if he isn't elite, legitimately stunk his first 3 years. All those guys ultimately were able to be successful because they had good teams around them. I'm pretty confident that if Andrew Luck is drafted by a bad team that lacks a real rebuilding plan, he's almost guaranteed to suck at first and will probably have a bad career. In football, no man is an island. Not even QBs.

Yeah, Manning is basically the only exception to your rule - is that really what you want to bet your future on? Finding Manning 2.0? I'd also argue Carson Palmer did pretty much the same thing for a Bengals team with a history of failure that exceeds the current Miami situation, but is that the level of success for which Miami fans are hoping?

Yeah, but Manning didn't play WELL his rookie year, so a QB having a negligible rookie year isn't in conflict with what we are talking about. Also, Matt Ryan played well, then mediocre, now maybe well again - he's not a great example of anything you should bet the farm on and give up draft picks for. He's a perfect example of the limits of the QB position in terms of what it means for afrnachise. If anything, your comments prove my point: McMahon isn't a franschise savior and Luck is more likely to be McMahon than Manning (or Marino)...

Should have included TJ Lang's Tweet back to Robson after his apology: “Glad to report my genitalia are in stable condition and expected to make a full recovery!” Lang wrote. “All joking aside I think Brian Robison is a heck of a player. Just caught up in the emotion of the game. Apology accepted.”

It's because Bryant has been cultivating an air of obnoxiousness from his first day in the league and that quote plays directly into folks' perception that he's an egotistical jackass. (Much the way that harmless DeSean Jackson quotes get blown out of proportion.)